Thursday, March 14, 2013

Strawberry Dessert Cheese Bites

Just before we moved, I stumbled upon a website called The Daring Kitchen. The Daring Kitchen is an online group of cooks and bakers that like to challenge themselves each month by trying a new recipe.
Sawsan from chef in disguise was our March 2013 Daring Cooks hostess! Sawsan challenges us to make our own homemade cheeses! She gave us a variety of choices to make, all of them easily accomplished and delicious!
This is my first month participating in The Daring Kitchen, and I'm so glad I did. I have wanted to try making cheese for a while now, but have been unsure of where to start. The recipe I chose was for Yogurt cheese or labneh. Specifically, I decided to make Labneh korat or yogurt cheese balls. It seems that it is one of the easiest types of cheese to make--you simply strain the water from yogurt. The recipe examples were all for savory flavors, but I have discovered a local cheese company that makes dessert cheese, and was inspired to try a sweet dessert cheese ball.

After letting it sit for several hours, not much water came out. Apparently a new container of Chobani is mixed really well. So I decided to make a hanging device and left it overnight in the fridge. (As suggested by Sawsan in the original recipe to speed up the process)

I thought that since the holes in my strainer were a bit large and far apart the cloth needed to be propped up so it wouldn't sit in the water that dripped out. My husband made a prop out of some small wooded skewer sticks.

It seemed to speed up the draining a little but at this point it was 3 pm the next day and it had been over 24 hours of draining, and I wanted to have these yogurt cheese balls for dessert.

So my husband helped me make a press.

With two cutting boards and...

His poker chips.

It worked pretty quickly.

By 7 pm the cheese looked ready.

The center was a tiny bit wet, but it was firm enough to roll balls.

A little smaller than golf balls.

Roll them in the chocolate chips.

Set on wax paper and let set in the fridge til ready to serve.

Delicious!

I ate mine straight, but I served them with Nilla wafers on the side.

Bubba did not like them. He took a bite, shuddered, and spit it out. He loves yogurt, but hates cheese. So even though it is a sweet dessert cheese, it must have been too "cheesy" for Bubba. He gladly ate his weight in Nilla wafers though.

Thanks! Great Challenge!I have plans for so many more dessert cheeses! I am thinking instead of little individual balls, one big one would be great to bring to parties with a couple of kinds of cookies to spread it on.